Charleston, South Carolina

7:30am
We were up at about 6:45am, just in time to see the sunrise. I went to take a picture, and then realized we had left the camera inside the cottage. Pete and Pam have each gone to work, but they left us a key. It is starting out to be a beautiful sunny day, and we’ll head off to Charleston in Pete’s car after we have some breakfast.

Sherman, parked up at the lake house

1:00pm
Drove into Charleston this morning, and while we were looking for a parking spot, we heard a big pop and whoosh noise, and could smell antifreeze and see steam right away. Found somewhere to park, and had a look...it seems a heater hose popped off. So we're letting the car cool down, and then I'll try and put the hose back on and put enough liquid in it to get it to a garage that's about half mile away. Going to pick up some takeout from a restaurant we went to 2 years ago here that we really liked.

Ruth, at the Charleston waterfront

11:00pm...updated
When we posted earlier, we had been sitting on a bench in the shade using an internet connection from a hotel. We were starting to get hungry, so we decided to head back to Aroma’s restaurant and see if they would do a takeout plate for us. We had eaten there two years ago, and promised that if we were ever back in Charleston we would eat there again. But we had Whiskey with us this time, so we couldn’t go inside. They had the same $6.95 lunch specials that they did last time, and sure enough they made a plate to go. We new the serving size was huge, so we only ordered one dish to split between us. I didn’t care what we got, so Ruth chose the pad thai with chicken. We walked back to where the car was parked cooling off, and opened all the windows and ate in the car. It was deeeelicious!

Aroma's Restaurant, 50 North Market Street.

Mmmmmm....lunch!

Then came the job of getting the car fixed. It was now cooled off enough that I could get my hand in there to try and reattach that hose. Even though I had no way getting the clamp tight, at least the hose was on the fitting. Sort of! Then I walked to a nearby hotel and used their garden hose to fill a jug a couple of times to put water in the cooling system.

We drove less than a mile to Mike’s Garage on Alexander Street. Mike’s not a real talkative guy, but he said to bring it in and he would see what he could do. I showed him the problem, left him alone to fix it, and he went to work. That hose had been messed with before, and had the wrong size clamp on it. It also wasn’t long enough and wouldn’t get over the fitting properly, so the whole job took him well over a half an hour. When it came time to pay, he wouldn’t accept any money. He said that he knows what it’s like to be broken down somewhere diffferent, and that we should just have a good day!

Kevin and Whiskey

So we drove back downtown and wandered around the Battery Park area of the waterfront where the big old homes are. They have a park there that is a dog friendly free running park at certain hours of the day. I think that’s great. There are certainly some cities in Canada that could become more “dog friendly”.

Big old southern homes.

When we left Charleston, it was just after 4pm so we hit a little bit of rush hour traffic. It took us a little over an hour to get back to the lake house. Pam has gone to work in Andrews, and so she’s staying there for the rest of the week. We were going to have Pete over to the motorhome for dinner, but he had already made a big pot of pirello to share with us. Not sure if I have the spelling right, but it’s a southern mixture of chicken, sausage, and rice. It was really good.

So we’ve decided to stay here another day. It’s really peaceful, and tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, with a high above 70F (21C). There’s a walking trail nearby, and we’ll maybe take the bikes for a ride.